Posted November 21, 2006 Okay guys, your help would be appreciated. Cheapo Acer Aspire 5100 laptop for £400, not bad at all. until I start downloading the new IE, MSN, Itunes, Winamp, a whole load of comedy, half life 2, deus ex, more games, and a lot of music, mostly illegally. Then suddenly bam, the whole thing grinds to a halt. I can't play music at the same time as any other application anymore without it stuttering, programs frequently crash or have extended periods where the little top left icon becomes a frustrating white box, start up is at least 10 minutes, and I CANT EVEN SEE WHAT IM TYPING HALF THE TIME COS THERES A TIME LAG! Pissing me off basically. I got norton, and as far as it knows my pc is virus free. So I got Windows XP Medic for $30, it 'cleaned up' my system tray, registry etc as much as it could...no effect. So it looks like a complete reformatting/reboot thing right. Note that I tried system restore and the three or so dates it stored wouldn't go. Basically, whats the easiest way of wiping my system while retaining all the shit i need, on a load of DVDS if need be...? I just gotta iPod which took all day to get 700 songs running so keeping that is paramount of course, as well as a load of work and bits of importan stuff. A program that lets me check and uncheck stuff to keep or not would be great, so I could keep throwing in DVDs and keeping all the essentials to reload when the PCs wiped basically. Help? Me? THank you lovely people, and happy Wiing! :yay: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 21, 2006 until I start downloading the new IE, MSN, Itunes, Winamp, a whole load of comedy, half life 2, deus ex, more games, and a lot of music, mostly illegally Have you learned your lesson about downloading things illegally? It may seem like fun and games but theres always repercussions. Its not big and its not clever. Now, how much data do you actually need to backup, because it sounds like you've only had the PC for a short while, so i'd expect you'd only need a few word documents of coursework maybe. That comes to about 10Mb max. Any photos you've put on there maybe. 3gb max. All that can fit on one DVD easily. Anything I forgot? If you want to back up all the games you downloaded illegally, or all the illegal music, then i feel that you just don't learn. Everything you legitimately download should be easy to download again. From program installers (msn, firefox, media player etc) to the legit music you download from itunes store or whatever (its all saved soyou download what you bought again). Shouldn't take more than a day to download. Start again, with as little as possible. Dont download anything illegal onto the reformatted system, and if this happens again then post here again. until then, have fun burning that DVD. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 21, 2006 Also, it's very likely there is tonnes of spyware on your computer, which is the main problem. Secondly, you installed the worse anti virus software ever. (I know it's usually free with Acer Laptops - But i installed it, uninstalled it and dumped AVG on instead...much better). If you don't care about the filenames, then you can simply get all your songs from your iPod (just view hidden folders - you can copy all the files from there). Only problem is that the iPod renames them "EEDS.mp3" and similar. But, the best course of action is a format, and reinstallation without the illegal rubbish Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 21, 2006 Okay guys, your help would be appreciated.So I got Windows XP Medic for $30, it 'cleaned up' my system tray, registry etc as much as it could...no effect. lol why just use the laptops restore disk/partition? to format windows and reinstall Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 21, 2006 Sounds like you better reboot from the disk, and hopefully it'll save most of your stuff. Also, Spybot S&D is your best friend. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 21, 2006 Have you learned your lesson about downloading things illegally? It may seem like fun and games but theres always repercussions. Its not big and its not clever. Unfortunately nowadays even legitimate software has spy/malware (Starforce or sony's rootkit anyone?) common sense is your best friend here. I think most big pc manufacturers give a restoration disk with your new pc. It usually formats and reinstalls the OS+ every application that came with the PC. It's like resetting the laptop to the point which it was purchased. So that would be the easiest option as CompSci said. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 21, 2006 this is exactly what happened to my laptop, whenever i tried ot play music and DVDs the sound started to stutter and break up and it took forever to boot up, i tried a system restore and it worked for a while but it came back again and then my programs kept on crashing, i think it was because i downloaded a certian program like MSN or Steam or somthing like thet, i got a replacement and it happened again, eventually i ended up returning it and i got my money back (£400) i am now using this to buy 2 wiis for gaggle and me, alls well that ends well i suppose. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 21, 2006 whenever i tried ot play music and DVDs the sound started to stutter and break up Was it an Acer Aspire? Seems to be some sort of clash with XP and the Sony Disc Drive Acer uses. Anyway, Acer laptops come with a restore disc, (but with the "format and install" option only - you can't keep your data). I found this out when my Laptop stopped loading (It just showed the Windows startup loading thing forever - I even left it overnight once). You also get separate discs with the pre-installed programs on them (so you can actually chose what you want/don't want. Also, the battery lifetime sucks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 21, 2006 Was it an Acer Aspire? yes, yes it was, i now hate acer with all my heart Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 21, 2006 Hate to point out the obvious, but its because your laptop is shit. It can't handle that many programs at once. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 21, 2006 mostly illegally. you bad person Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 21, 2006 When I first got my laptop after a windows update it used to end up with some cardiac arrest. (Its also an acer) after a system restore, back to before I did the update it was fine. Maybe the latest update didn't gel with your system? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 22, 2006 Start by removing Norton. That monstrosity of a software group has ruined more computers than the viruses it tries to protect against. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 22, 2006 How much RAM do you have? That will probably be the reason. Format and start over, only install essential stuff. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 22, 2006 I'll say it again, you can't expect your system to handle that load and run flawlessly, especially on windows. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 22, 2006 How much RAM do you have? That will probably be the reason. Format and start over, only install essential stuff. To help with the RAM issue: Only applications that should start when windows starts are antivirus- and firewall software. Shutdown winamp agent, msn messenger and similar. You can start them manually if you need to. Itunes is a bitch though as it loads the itunes service and if you remove it from startup it'll add itself there the next time you open itunes. I'll say it again, you can't expect your system to handle that load and run flawlessly, especially on windows. Not sure what you mean by this? It's obvious that the laptop can't handle running all of those applications he mentioned in the 1st post at once. But just installing software doesn't make the pc slow. As long as there's plenty of room for the swap file, all should be well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 23, 2006 Not sure what you mean by this? It's obvious that the laptop can't handle running all of those applications he mentioned in the 1st post at once. But just installing software doesn't make the pc slow. As long as there's plenty of room for the swap file, all should be well. If the hard drive is almost full that will slow down the computer as it has to search through more files every time it tries to open something. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 23, 2006 If the hard drive is almost full that will slow down the computer as it has to search through more files every time it tries to open something. That's exactly why you need the space for the swap file I think there might also be some differences on what filesystem is used (fat or NTFS). I've also read that keeping a fixed- size swap file is better than having a dynamic one. I haven't noticed any performance differences though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 1, 2006 Have you learned your lesson about downloading things illegally? It may seem like fun and games but theres always repercussions. Its not big and its not clever. Actually it's both big and clever, but not if you're an idiot about it. I know this shit because I have 3 terabytes of fault tolerant storage almost full of data. But as for the OP, looks like you fucked your laptop. Backup data, flatten and reinstall. Haha, and this: Start by removing Norton. That monstrosity of a software group has ruined more computers than the viruses it tries to protect against. I agree with wholeheartedly. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
